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hermv2000
Participant
March 29, 2024
Question

catalog nightmare

  • March 29, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 187 views

I just moved everything from a windows 10 pc to a new windows 11 pc using Laplink PC mover pro.  I am trying to clean up old catalogs which seem to date back to Lightroom v4. 

 

Here is a screen shot showing the folders in windows explorer.  What I want is one catalog.  How do I determine which of these many catalogs Lightroom is now using?   And can I delete all the folders that don't apply? 

 

There are 9 folders here suffixed with the number 13, the version of Lightroom classic which I am using.  There are 4 other folders labeled Lightroom 12 and Lightroom 13.  The total size of all these is 70.1 GB, comprising 76,627 Files, 101,007 Folders.  

 

I'm pretty good at photo processing but obviously my organization skills need work.

 

Thank you,

 

Herman

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    2 replies

    KR Seals
    Community Expert
    KR SealsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 29, 2024

    As long as you are using Lightroom Classic (LrC) V 13.x, all you need is the V 13 files.

     

    None of the files shown are actual LrC catalogs. The main catalog file end with the extension .lrcat. The other folder and files are supplemental files that LrC uses but the essential file is the .lrcat file. 

     

    If you find more than one .lrcat file that has V13 in the name, you have probably been using the one with the latest file date. If you find more than one V13 .lrcat file, come back here for advices on dealing with that.

     

    Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
    AxelMatt
    Community Expert
    AxelMattCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 29, 2024

    Do you work normally with different catalogs? Or is it possible the the "Lightroom Catalog-v13-x" files has different contents?

    Which catalog you has recently opened you see in the title of the main window (point 1 in the screenshot) of in the Catalog Settings dialog on the General tab.

     

     

    If all catalogs has the same contents you can delete all except the files and folders that including ther name of the recenty opened catalog, ex. "Lightroom Catalog-v13-3".

     

    If the content differs between the catalogs you have to migrate it first.

    Here you'll find a good article with many useful informations: Merging Catalogs - The Overview | The Lightroom Queen

     

    My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI
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